LV

The PTTOW Summit, held in May at Southern California’s Terranea Resort, encouraged conference attendees to sit with one another and answer some of life's big questions. A spinning wheel positioned adjacent to a seating group offered a series of topics—like "hate," "doubt," and "purpose"—to break the ice and make the exercise more interesting. The coffee table positioned at the seating group offered a workbook that participants could open to find questions or activities to do together, and the event also offered "conversation cookies,” fortune cookies filled with more conversation topics. JOWY Productions was behind the event’s production.

So-called “dine arounds” are hallmarks of the Engage luxury wedding industry summits, offering opportunities for small groups to interact and to give them some intimate time with event speakers. Each speaker plays host to a table of 10 randomly selected attendees, encouraging guests to mix and mingle outside their circle of friends. And to make the experience more fun, table assignments are given in playful ways. For instance, in Las Vegas attendees selected from among personalized playing cards that all bore speaker photos and restaurant names.

Similarly, for Engage at Palm Beach's the Breakers, custom fabric flowers indicated each attendee's designated table number.

At Cisco Live, held in San Francisco in May, attendees ate lunch outside every day, with about 1,500 seats at large round tables—or on blankets available for those who wanted to find friends or experience a more casual setting. In another networking opportunity, Cisco Live attendees were also invited to join peers and Cisco experts in small groups over lunch for a chat about technical topics of the group's choice. The "Table Topics"  discussions offered a fresh perspective on the issues that the masses were talking about at Cisco Live, for instance cloud security. Anyone was also welcome to start a discussion on a new topic and lead the agenda by finding an open table and posting the topic so other interested attendees could find it and join.

Similarly, for the TED Conference's simulcast event, TEDActive, held in the Southern California desert last year, about 700 guests gathered for a picnic lunch. The conversation-facilitating twist was that picnic baskets were available not for individuals, but for groups of seven—so each person had to meet six new attendees with whom to eat and talk.

Sometimes it takes a little break from formal networking talk to get the creative juices flowing—and the personal connections happening. To that end, TEDActive also set up informal game stations on hay bales around the venue as ice breakers for guests.

Some organizers get the networking going before the event doors even open to maximize the opportunities for interaction on site: Metropolitan Events & Production was behind a pre-event networking campaign for the 2012 shows that took place in both Chicago and Orlando. Organizers encouraged attendees to use social media to post selfies they took while holding signs that said "Meet Me at the Makeup Show,” along with their names and the event’s hashtags. The stunt was intended to build community and promote face recognition when the show kicked off. Organizers gathered the images and shared them on the event’s social channels to further build visibility among the participants.

The Exhibitor Show's "Dinner With Strangers” program offered people attending the show solo a chance to maximize meal time for networking, instead of dining in their hotel rooms alone. Attendees could join group reservations arranged by organizers at multiple restaurants for each night of the show. Sign-up sheets in the conference registration area detailed the eatery's name, type of cuisine, approximate cost, and reservation time.

Game participants at I.B.M. Connect earned points for offline activities, such as building the tallest Lego structure, as well as online activities such as sharing conference content on Twitter and Instagram.

Attendees could have their golf swing analyzed by a computer provided by Prestige Golf Arrangements.

The Web app Eventstagram creates a real-time slideshow of photos taken at an event and shared on Instagram. The product launched last fall, and both the Los Angeles Auto Show and the Houston Auto Show have used it to share photos from their events on large screens. Planners create a free account on the Eventstagram Web site, indicating the event dates, its hashtags and location, and the desired speed and animation of the photos. At the event the Evenstagram feed can be displayed on monitors or large screens. It’s free to display as many as 100 photos for a total of one hour (the time can be allocated in increments). For $50, planners can display 1,000 photos for six hours and also have moderation capability. Eventstagram will soon offer an option that accommodates more photos and time, a higher degree of moderation, and an online editor so users can fully customize the display with logos and sponsor slides.

For the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Ford worked with Imagination (212.813.6400, imagination.com) to debut the Ford Blue Oval Card, an R.F.I.D.-enabled card. On-site the cards, which guests preregistered for online, could be used to save content to download later via a personal Web page. The booth also featured a 20-foot-tall elevator that brought guests up into “The Cloud,” a 360-degree cinema experience that offered a look at the future of in-vehicle cloud computing.

The Gametime zone included pinball machines, Pac-Man, Wii consoles, and two NASCAR simulators.

Add some fun and efficiency to the traditional exchange of information by giving your attendees a Poken. The device attaches to a lanyard or key chain and comes in dozens of conversation-starting designs such as a panda bear, a ninja, and a bumble bee (as well as a simple black-and-white model). The device uses near-field communication, so simply tapping two together exchanges the information stored on them, such as contact information, social network profiles, documents, videos, and Web sites. After the event, users plug the Poken into their computer's USB port to see all the people and information collected. It can also sync with mobile devices using the Poken app. Planners can create incentives for people to share their information by using the product's Game Pack.

Mashable hosts a two-day conference each spring at Walt Disney World. The event, for about 300 senior-level executives from digital firms, brand leaders, senior-level marketers, and entrepreneurs, ends with a social-media-based scavenger hunt. In 2012, the networking activity took place at Epcot, where teams of five attendees worked to identify things in the park based on a set of clues and then posted photos of their findings on Instagram, tagged with #Mashcon.

The Zen lounge offered organic decor look in a serene environment, where therapists were on hand to massage attendees' tired feet.

The GT Academy area was based on Nissan’s virtual-to-reality contest that allowed players of Sony’s Gran Turismo Playstation game to become race drivers. At the Geneva Show, Nissan set up simulation pods where guests could play the game and share a photo of the experience on their social networks.

Attendees had vendors sign off on bingo cards, which they could redeem at the end of the event for prizes.